My Story
Envelope
My heartbeat increased, my eyes filled with tears and my mouth felt dry. Suddenly I couldn’t feel my legs and dropped to the floor but missed it and fell into warm soft hands. Slowly the hands brought me to my feet and let me go, another thing I didn’t want to happen. “I am sorry for your, um, losses but there is no time to waste.” I looked out my apartment window, the sun shining brightly, lighting up the whole room. “Miss Lillabeth, no one but you and I know about this.” I moved my eyes from the floor to the detective. He was good looking, short brown hair, light pale skin, and a perfect mix of blue and green combined into his eyes. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a brown coat over a white collared shirt. “Why?” I spoke as if my words were my last. “Because of this,” he handed a 5by 5cm envelope over to me.
I stared blankly, this detective, whoever he was, didn’t report a family of five missing and whoever the kidnapper was didn’t take the oldest sibling all because of a envelope. Strange, “What’s in it?”. “Why don’t you have a look for yourself?” The detective’s voice had some sort of an edge to it, like he had done this before. I slowly lifted my left arm from my torso and took hold of the creamy coloured envelope. We both stood close to my apartment door, it was open, just enough for someone to poke in their head. It took both hands and a little strength to open the envelope, the last time I had seen my family was two days ago at a family gathering. Everything had been so perfect back then, now everything was a mess without my family, without Mum, Dad, Eric and Vi.
Inside the envelope was a pink A4 piece of paper, I dropped the envelope and unfolded the piece of paper. My eyes narrowed and my body filled with shock. “Do you understand it?” I scoffed. The letters were written on neatly with a black ink pen, it had 37 which was followed by 4 small lines which represented 4 letters and finished with the remaining letters a, t, a and the word, street. I realised what it was without even studying it closely. “Of course I do, it’s an address, 37 Ericata Street, Eric is the four lines,” I slowly breathed. “Correction, it was your address, your families,” the detective looked into my eyes. I think he assumed I wasn’t going to say anything so he stood, silently, “How do you know all of this?” he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a gold badge. “I’m police, I do have my resources,” he smiled slightly trying to show off his perfect, shiny, white teeth. I believed him but I had my doubts.
“It was sent to me 2 days ago, I have received information that the last time you saw your family was in fact, 2 days ago.” I nodded, “Ok, let me get to the facts, your family members are still alive.” I looked up from the brown, wooden floorboards beneath me. “Well where are they?” I could feel my temper rising. I wasn’t very good at handling things like this, I liked everything to be my way. “Well one of your family members will be at that house, as you know.” His eyes now showed sympathy and yet they glistened so innocently in the sun’s light. “If you want to save them we have to be there before,” He pulled his coat’s sleeve up his arm to reveal his watch. “9,” I exhaled we had heaps of time, after all, it was only 8:45am. “Am,” he finished. I looked deeply into the detective’s eyes. “Are you mad we’re not going to make it? I live in the city and Ericata Street is blocks away!” I had become breathless. He held out his hand, I think he expected me to shake it, but my hands were tightly holding the pink piece of paper around my stomach. “I’ve got my car outside.”
“I didn’t introduce myself before, I’m Dean, Dean Newberry,” he said in his now friendly, very unusual, but welcoming and friendly voice. “Lillabeth Common,” I held out my hand to shake his but he kept his eyes straight on the road and both hands tightly on the steering wheel, he was a police man after all. The sun was still shining but there was a cool breeze in the air. I had blue sneakers, skinny blue jeans and a black cardie over top of my white singlet on. The roads were deserted, every house looked so simple and so empty. Luckily we wouldn’t have to move through the busy town traffic hours because it was a Sunday, everyone was probably sleeping in.
Suddenly the car came to a halt, “Why are we stopping?” I questioned. “We’re here,” his voice sounded deathly and eager. “Before we go ahead,” I started but Mr Dean rudely interrupted me, yet his face seemed sure of what I was about to ask him. “Yes, this isn’t the first time this person has tried to ruin someone’s life,” he took a moment to take a breath and prepare his next sentence but he didn’t say anything. The house was down a long gravel driveway which led to many other homes. Dean, once again looked at his watch, “It’s 5 to 9.” He looked across the car, we were standing outside the car doors. Dean’s car was a dark blue Ford, its wheels bright silver inside standing out more than anything in this dull street. We stood together now at the start of the driveway. “We better hurry,” I followed Dean. We quickly made our way down the driveway, each of our steps crushing the ground beneath us.
“So what are we waiting for?” I jumped, startled by how close behind me Dean had come. “To many memory’s I guess,” Dean slid in front of me. “Well no use dwelling on them out here.” The tall fence behind me separated the driveway from the house and there was a small opening for at least a small car to fit through. I stood on a small field of grass in front of large wooden doors. “Flash home, why’d you move?” Dean stroked his hand down the light yellow cement walls.
My mind was set back in time so I just couldn’t find the words to answer. I looked up, the sun swiftly filling my eyes with bright lights. The red tiled roof seemed as if it would fall of any minute, “Lillabeth before we go in there.” I moved my eyes from the sky to him, my neck hurt, “I want you to know that this may be your last glimpse of the outside world.” You could easily tell he was trying to scare me, make me chicken out. “For what it’s worth,” I looked into his eyes, trying to make him not underestimate me. “I would die for my family any day,” I spoke sharply, making sure my words met his ears. All of a sudden there came a painful, suffering, heart breaking scream from inside.
I instantly recognized the scream, Dean hurried to the door. We both had the same reaction and reached together to open the old, brown, wooden doors. The room was filled with silence, emptiness and memories. Dean walked in freely not even trying to acknowledge the fact of how hard this could be for me. He walked straight ahead searching every corner with his now fiery eyes. In front of me lay the start of light creamy wooden stairs and a dusty kitchen, to my left was a door, and to my right was a plain white wall. “Lillabeth,” Dean called from my left, I was still standing at the doorstep. “Lillabeth,” his voice was breaking, I walked towards the door to my left. It was light brown and had a dusty golden doorknob. Slowly I opened the door, slowly feeling regret, I could hear Dean rapidly talking on his cell.
The room was empty, two large sliding doors were at the other side letting in enough light to see. Dean was opposite me and above me, in the middle of the room hung my brother. He was hung from a thick rope which had been hastily nailed in through the ceiling, his eyes wide open staring into mine. “I’ve called the police, told them the whole truth, there’re on their way.” I slowly took a deep breath, “Lillabeth,” Dean walked close up to my brother, it looked as if he was examining his clothing, but seriously, what was the use. “Run,” he yelled, I chuckled, where I screamed in my head, where. Then I saw Dean running towards me, he was serious. “Why?” I said, I now felt very confused. “Your brother’s covered in oil, which can mean only one...” Dean never got to finish his sentence, we were both too late, or slow I should say. A bright explosion sent us both flying to the other side of the house.
I slowly opened my eyes, I tryed to blink and managed to several times. I tried to shout for help, but I knew no-one would hear, the houses next door had been empty for years. “Dean,” I coughed, “Dean,” slow pain filled my waists. I used my hands to raise myself to my feet. I could just see the doors through the smoke, luckily the fire hadn’t made its way to the door, yet. I reached for the door handle but it opened without me even touching it. A head poked in, “Need some help?” I slowly managed a nod, my legs were about to give way but I was lifted by strong, smooth arms.
I felt lush green grass under me, above me the sun was shining brighter than ever, I breathed, air, I thought, beautiful life saving air. Suddenly I was reminded about Dean, “Where’s Dean?”, “The guy over there you mean?” I turned my head, Dean lay on the grass with his eyes shut, stiff with no signs of any movement. I dragged myself over to his side. We sat in front of a burning house, now I had done everything a life can offer, including seeing my brother hung from a rope.
“Is, he, dead,” the words hardly left my mouth, “He’s breathing, just unconscious.” I let out a sign of relief than took a moment to look at my saviour, I Iooked back at Dean, our saviour. He had short brown spiky hair, black eyes, blue skinny jeans a short sleeved green top, and tanned pale skin. Although he dressed as if he were a teenager his face gave away his age, he looked like he was in his twenties. He noticed the way I was looking at him and became very uncomfortable looking, “Sorry, um, I, um,” he looked down. “I’m Keith, I live next door.” I turned my head sideways and stood up, he followed, now all my pain had flushed away.
“Isn’t that strange because along with the house that just burnt, sorry, correction, that is burning, the houses next to it has been empty for years as well.” His face stiffened, he stepped towards me, so close that I could feel his breathe on my lips. Suddenly he groaned and held onto his stomach stepping back from me. Dean had awoken, “You little,” Dean stopped himself, trying to resist the temptation, “You know you made me miss my daily coffee, in my 12 years of living here I have never missed my daily coffee.” Dean held him by his neck tightly, making sure his grip was tight enough and all I could do was hope for an uninjured ending.
“Dean let him go or else he’ll die,” Dean looked at me, puzzled. “You heard the lady, put me down.” The words so clearly spoken, even though he was being strangled, never met Dean’s ears he was still staring into my eyes. He dropped him, surprisingly, and slowly approached me. Our eyes never left each others, in the distance I could hear sirens approaching and hesitated. “Dean I’m sorry, I don’t know what got into me, I guess, I was scared that if you killed him I would have no chance of finding my family, or I should say the rest of my family,” I looked towards where Dean had dropped “Keith” in his place now lay an envelope.
The house was unlit now, burnt out and black. The crowd around the yellow police line became bigger and bigger, the voices murmuring became louder and louder. “Lillabeth,” Dean walked up to me, he had taken off his coat and had a white bandage wrapped around his arm and a plaster stuck above his left eyebrow. “Here, I want you to open it.” He handed over the envelope, I saw now it was the same as the one I had been given with the address in it. I sat on a white stretcher bed in an ambulance which was parked in the driveway. “I want you to know,” he held my free hand. “Whatever’s in there, we’ll always been in this together,” I smiled, finely feeling some comfort. I ripped open the envelope which revealed a black and white photo. It was filled with at least 14 boys and girls and they all wore old styled suits and dresses. I could easily spot out my parents, young and beautiful. There was a small date and sentence on the back. 1980 2nd of December Graveny Hall What a night! To be continued
Written by Anjali Patel It's pretty long and some people would prefer not to read it but I thought it is pretty good, probably because it is what I wrote.
Envelope
My heartbeat increased, my eyes filled with tears and my mouth felt dry. Suddenly I couldn’t feel my legs and dropped to the floor but missed it and fell into warm soft hands. Slowly the hands brought me to my feet and let me go, another thing I didn’t want to happen. “I am sorry for your, um, losses but there is no time to waste.” I looked out my apartment window, the sun shining brightly, lighting up the whole room. “Miss Lillabeth, no one but you and I know about this.” I moved my eyes from the floor to the detective. He was good looking, short brown hair, light pale skin, and a perfect mix of blue and green combined into his eyes. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a brown coat over a white collared shirt. “Why?” I spoke as if my words were my last. “Because of this,” he handed a 5by 5cm envelope over to me.
I stared blankly, this detective, whoever he was, didn’t report a family of five missing and whoever the kidnapper was didn’t take the oldest sibling all because of a envelope. Strange, “What’s in it?”. “Why don’t you have a look for yourself?” The detective’s voice had some sort of an edge to it, like he had done this before. I slowly lifted my left arm from my torso and took hold of the creamy coloured envelope. We both stood close to my apartment door, it was open, just enough for someone to poke in their head. It took both hands and a little strength to open the envelope, the last time I had seen my family was two days ago at a family gathering. Everything had been so perfect back then, now everything was a mess without my family, without Mum, Dad, Eric and Vi.
Inside the envelope was a pink A4 piece of paper, I dropped the envelope and unfolded the piece of paper. My eyes narrowed and my body filled with shock. “Do you understand it?” I scoffed. The letters were written on neatly with a black ink pen, it had 37 which was followed by 4 small lines which represented 4 letters and finished with the remaining letters a, t, a and the word, street. I realised what it was without even studying it closely. “Of course I do, it’s an address, 37 Ericata Street, Eric is the four lines,” I slowly breathed. “Correction, it was your address, your families,” the detective looked into my eyes. I think he assumed I wasn’t going to say anything so he stood, silently, “How do you know all of this?” he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a gold badge. “I’m police, I do have my resources,” he smiled slightly trying to show off his perfect, shiny, white teeth. I believed him but I had my doubts.
“It was sent to me 2 days ago, I have received information that the last time you saw your family was in fact, 2 days ago.” I nodded, “Ok, let me get to the facts, your family members are still alive.” I looked up from the brown, wooden floorboards beneath me. “Well where are they?” I could feel my temper rising. I wasn’t very good at handling things like this, I liked everything to be my way. “Well one of your family members will be at that house, as you know.” His eyes now showed sympathy and yet they glistened so innocently in the sun’s light. “If you want to save them we have to be there before,” He pulled his coat’s sleeve up his arm to reveal his watch. “9,” I exhaled we had heaps of time, after all, it was only 8:45am. “Am,” he finished. I looked deeply into the detective’s eyes. “Are you mad we’re not going to make it? I live in the city and Ericata Street is blocks away!” I had become breathless. He held out his hand, I think he expected me to shake it, but my hands were tightly holding the pink piece of paper around my stomach. “I’ve got my car outside.”
“I didn’t introduce myself before, I’m Dean, Dean Newberry,” he said in his now friendly, very unusual, but welcoming and friendly voice. “Lillabeth Common,” I held out my hand to shake his but he kept his eyes straight on the road and both hands tightly on the steering wheel, he was a police man after all. The sun was still shining but there was a cool breeze in the air. I had blue sneakers, skinny blue jeans and a black cardie over top of my white singlet on. The roads were deserted, every house looked so simple and so empty. Luckily we wouldn’t have to move through the busy town traffic hours because it was a Sunday, everyone was probably sleeping in.
Suddenly the car came to a halt, “Why are we stopping?” I questioned. “We’re here,” his voice sounded deathly and eager. “Before we go ahead,” I started but Mr Dean rudely interrupted me, yet his face seemed sure of what I was about to ask him. “Yes, this isn’t the first time this person has tried to ruin someone’s life,” he took a moment to take a breath and prepare his next sentence but he didn’t say anything. The house was down a long gravel driveway which led to many other homes. Dean, once again looked at his watch, “It’s 5 to 9.” He looked across the car, we were standing outside the car doors. Dean’s car was a dark blue Ford, its wheels bright silver inside standing out more than anything in this dull street. We stood together now at the start of the driveway. “We better hurry,” I followed Dean. We quickly made our way down the driveway, each of our steps crushing the ground beneath us.
“So what are we waiting for?” I jumped, startled by how close behind me Dean had come. “To many memory’s I guess,” Dean slid in front of me. “Well no use dwelling on them out here.” The tall fence behind me separated the driveway from the house and there was a small opening for at least a small car to fit through. I stood on a small field of grass in front of large wooden doors. “Flash home, why’d you move?” Dean stroked his hand down the light yellow cement walls.
My mind was set back in time so I just couldn’t find the words to answer. I looked up, the sun swiftly filling my eyes with bright lights. The red tiled roof seemed as if it would fall of any minute, “Lillabeth before we go in there.” I moved my eyes from the sky to him, my neck hurt, “I want you to know that this may be your last glimpse of the outside world.” You could easily tell he was trying to scare me, make me chicken out. “For what it’s worth,” I looked into his eyes, trying to make him not underestimate me. “I would die for my family any day,” I spoke sharply, making sure my words met his ears. All of a sudden there came a painful, suffering, heart breaking scream from inside.
I instantly recognized the scream, Dean hurried to the door. We both had the same reaction and reached together to open the old, brown, wooden doors. The room was filled with silence, emptiness and memories. Dean walked in freely not even trying to acknowledge the fact of how hard this could be for me. He walked straight ahead searching every corner with his now fiery eyes. In front of me lay the start of light creamy wooden stairs and a dusty kitchen, to my left was a door, and to my right was a plain white wall. “Lillabeth,” Dean called from my left, I was still standing at the doorstep. “Lillabeth,” his voice was breaking, I walked towards the door to my left. It was light brown and had a dusty golden doorknob. Slowly I opened the door, slowly feeling regret, I could hear Dean rapidly talking on his cell.
The room was empty, two large sliding doors were at the other side letting in enough light to see. Dean was opposite me and above me, in the middle of the room hung my brother. He was hung from a thick rope which had been hastily nailed in through the ceiling, his eyes wide open staring into mine. “I’ve called the police, told them the whole truth, there’re on their way.” I slowly took a deep breath, “Lillabeth,” Dean walked close up to my brother, it looked as if he was examining his clothing, but seriously, what was the use. “Run,” he yelled, I chuckled, where I screamed in my head, where. Then I saw Dean running towards me, he was serious. “Why?” I said, I now felt very confused. “Your brother’s covered in oil, which can mean only one...” Dean never got to finish his sentence, we were both too late, or slow I should say. A bright explosion sent us both flying to the other side of the house.
I slowly opened my eyes, I tryed to blink and managed to several times. I tried to shout for help, but I knew no-one would hear, the houses next door had been empty for years. “Dean,” I coughed, “Dean,” slow pain filled my waists. I used my hands to raise myself to my feet. I could just see the doors through the smoke, luckily the fire hadn’t made its way to the door, yet. I reached for the door handle but it opened without me even touching it. A head poked in, “Need some help?” I slowly managed a nod, my legs were about to give way but I was lifted by strong, smooth arms.
I felt lush green grass under me, above me the sun was shining brighter than ever, I breathed, air, I thought, beautiful life saving air. Suddenly I was reminded about Dean, “Where’s Dean?”, “The guy over there you mean?” I turned my head, Dean lay on the grass with his eyes shut, stiff with no signs of any movement. I dragged myself over to his side. We sat in front of a burning house, now I had done everything a life can offer, including seeing my brother hung from a rope.
“Is, he, dead,” the words hardly left my mouth, “He’s breathing, just unconscious.” I let out a sign of relief than took a moment to look at my saviour, I Iooked back at Dean, our saviour. He had short brown spiky hair, black eyes, blue skinny jeans a short sleeved green top, and tanned pale skin. Although he dressed as if he were a teenager his face gave away his age, he looked like he was in his twenties. He noticed the way I was looking at him and became very uncomfortable looking, “Sorry, um, I, um,” he looked down. “I’m Keith, I live next door.” I turned my head sideways and stood up, he followed, now all my pain had flushed away.
“Isn’t that strange because along with the house that just burnt, sorry, correction, that is burning, the houses next to it has been empty for years as well.” His face stiffened, he stepped towards me, so close that I could feel his breathe on my lips. Suddenly he groaned and held onto his stomach stepping back from me. Dean had awoken, “You little,” Dean stopped himself, trying to resist the temptation, “You know you made me miss my daily coffee, in my 12 years of living here I have never missed my daily coffee.” Dean held him by his neck tightly, making sure his grip was tight enough and all I could do was hope for an uninjured ending.
“Dean let him go or else he’ll die,” Dean looked at me, puzzled. “You heard the lady, put me down.” The words so clearly spoken, even though he was being strangled, never met Dean’s ears he was still staring into my eyes. He dropped him, surprisingly, and slowly approached me. Our eyes never left each others, in the distance I could hear sirens approaching and hesitated. “Dean I’m sorry, I don’t know what got into me, I guess, I was scared that if you killed him I would have no chance of finding my family, or I should say the rest of my family,” I looked towards where Dean had dropped “Keith” in his place now lay an envelope.
The house was unlit now, burnt out and black. The crowd around the yellow police line became bigger and bigger, the voices murmuring became louder and louder. “Lillabeth,” Dean walked up to me, he had taken off his coat and had a white bandage wrapped around his arm and a plaster stuck above his left eyebrow. “Here, I want you to open it.” He handed over the envelope, I saw now it was the same as the one I had been given with the address in it. I sat on a white stretcher bed in an ambulance which was parked in the driveway. “I want you to know,” he held my free hand. “Whatever’s in there, we’ll always been in this together,” I smiled, finely feeling some comfort. I ripped open the envelope which revealed a black and white photo. It was filled with at least 14 boys and girls and they all wore old styled suits and dresses. I could easily spot out my parents, young and beautiful. There was a small date and sentence on the back.
1980 2nd of December Graveny Hall What a night!
To be continued
Written by Anjali Patel
It's pretty long and some people would prefer not to read it but I thought it is pretty good, probably because it is what I wrote.